Immersing into 360 virtual reality

• Main Author: Lim, Zijie
• Other Authors: Chua Hock Chuan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/70691
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

There is an emerging and rising trend in 360 degree videos and virtual reality in recent years with more companies and people playing a part in it. However, 360 video and virtual reality are still not as easily accessible and picked up by the general public due to unfamiliarity and the high costs involved. The objective of this project looks at how amidst various limitations, an interactive 360 virtual reality video controlled via hand gestures could be produced without the need for overpriced equipment. There are online software which helps to produce interactive videos but are however very costly. We also looked at the various methods to implement the interactive parts as well as looking into the different 360 cameras, 360 video players and 360 video websites. The final product is to stream the 360 video that is uploaded on YouTube with TrinusVR to a mobile phone, which can thereafter be viewed with a Virtual Reality headset. Clickable annotations, also known as hotspots, are allowed on YouTube videos and this provides a method to create clickable buttons that could allow the user to choose options within the video. eViacam software has been included to act as a mouse to allow hand gestures to be part of the video. This can then in turn allow the hand to click on the hotspots. This project has successfully achieved the main aim of producing an interactive 360 video whilst keeping costs as low as possible. Even though the final product is not perfect due to limitations which would be mentioned in later parts of the report, there are many other improvements that could be made over time and when the technology with 360 videos and interactive platforms improve over time.